Incomes and Food Security Management in rural areas of Burkina Faso

Food security is traditionally analyzed using one or the other of the four (4) dimensions that are availability, accessibility, quality and stability. The existing empirical analyzes classify households in two situations (food security and food insecurity) through a threshold they set. However, classifying households to two situations is very limited because it does not reflect the actual situation of households. Moreover, in the analysis of the determinants of food insecurity, qualitative models used by empirical investigations generate loss of information. To address these difficulties, the fuzzy set theory and Tobit model are two complementary approaches to identify households facing food insecurity and find its determinants. This methodology will be adopted to measure the impact of incomes management on food insecurity in rural areas in Burkina Faso. Keywords: Food insecurity, fuzzy sets theory, Tobit model, Burkina Faso

Effet d'une complémentation azotée sur la pathologie de la trypanosomose animale africaine chez les moutons sahéliens

Effect of a Complementation Nitrogenized on the Pathology of Animal Trypanosomiasis at the Sahelian Sheeps. La méthode thermique pour la détermination de flux de sève et la chambre à pression pour mesurer les potentiels hydriques foliaire et xylémique, ont été utilisées chez l'olivier de table Olea europaea cv Meski pour estimer la conductance hydraulique et la participation élémentaire des 4 branches selon l'orientation et l'exposition aux radiations solaires. Les mesures ont été effectuées du 23-10-2004 au 30-11-2004 dans un verger d'olivier de table et principalement sur deux arbres de la variété la plus commercialisée Meski. Cette étude a permis l'estimation de la conductance globale de la plante ainsi que la contribution de chaque génératrice. Les taux des conductances hydrauliques partielles sont respectivement de 43, 24, 20 et 13% dans les branches est, nord, sud et ouest. Elle a montré l'importance de l'interception lumineuse dans le déterminisme des flux de sève et des potentiels hydriques foliaires dans chaque branche, et par conséquent la liaison avec le mode de taille et la densité de plantation à préconiser

Analyse des déterminants de la demande en poisson des ménages au Burkina Faso: cas du milieu rural (Vallée du Kou) et du milieu urbain (Bobo Dioulasso et Ouagadougou)

Analysis of the Determinants of Households'Fish Demand in Burkina Faso: the Case of a Rural Area (Vallée du Kou) and Urban Areas (Bobo-Dioulasso and Ouagadougou). A study was conducted in 2004 in Burkina Faso in order to analyze the determinants of households' fish demand in both rural (Vallée du Kou) and urban (Bobo-Dioulasso and Ouagadougou) areas. To achieve this objective, 535 households were surveyed, the data collected were analyzed and a double-log regression function was constructed. The results of this study showed that households' fish consumption varied considerably according to the area (rural or urban). Households' fish demand was influenced by the availability of the product in the market. In addition to that, when the fish supply frequency increased, the duration of the conservation of the product was reduced or was annulled. The study revealed that the determinants of fish demand in rural area in Vallée du Kou included the size of the household, the prize of the fish in the market, the level of education and the revenue of the head of the household. In urban areas, these determinants include mainly the revenue of the head of the household, fish supply frequency, and conservation methods of the product

HIV infection and mycobacterium tuberculosis drug-resistance among tuberculosis patients in Burkina Faso, West Africa

The aim of this study was to compare the drug-resistance patterns of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains among pulmonary tuberculosis patients, according to their HIV serostatus, in Burkina Faso. Tuberculosis (TB) patients were classified in new and previously treated cases by using a structured questionnaire. Susceptibility testing to isoniazid, streptomycin, rifampicin and ethambutol was done by the proportion method. Association between HIV-serostatus and drug-resistant TB was assessed with χ2 tests, and the statistical significance was set to

Polygala rarifolia DC., plante faux hôte du Striga hermonthica (Del.) Benth

Objectif: L’objectif est d’étudier l’efficacité biologique de Polygala rarifolia sur les graines de Striga hermonthica et la nature des extraits racinaires afin d’identifier le mode d’action.Méthodologie et résultats: La méthodologie utilisée est celle de culture in vitro et de l’Analyse par chromatographie liquide à haute pression (HPLC) des extraits racinaires du Polygala rarifolia et du niébé. Les résultats obtenus en culture in vitro confirment le mode d’action de plante faux hôte. Dans les extraits racinaires de Polygala rarifolia et de niébé on a repéré la présence de pics sur les chromatogrammes, des substances présentant des temps de rétention très voisins de ceux du Strigol et de Sorgholactone mais dont les spectres UV très différents. Celui du niébé (tr = 27,30 min) et de Polygala rarifolia (tr = 27,33 min) sont identiques donc constituent la même substance chimique. Il a été possible d’affirmer que les extraits racinaires de Polygala rarifolia contiennent des substances voisines de celles du Strigol. Pour établir que ce sont bien elles qui sont responsables de la germination des graines de Striga hermothica, il faudrait désormais associer une étude phytochimique plus approfondie à une étude d’activité et établir la formule chimique de ces substances.Conclusion et application des résultats: D’autres études complémentaires de l’activité biologique de Polygala rarifolia pourront se faire dans l’objectif de confirmer ou d’ajouter d’autres résultats non identifiés ici. Tous ces résultats forts intéressants pourront faire l’objet de mise en pratique sur le terrain par le biais de la pré vulgarisation auprès des paysans en tenant compte des conditions climatiques souvent défavorables.Mots Clés: Polygala rarifolia, Striga hermonthica, Maïs, Niébé, Faux hôte, HPLCEnglish Title: Polygala rarifolia DC. trap crop of Striga hermonthica (Del.) BenthEnglish AbstractObjective: Local knowledge in weed management exists in Burkina Faso, especially Striga hermonthica. The study was interested in the use of the plant, Polygala rarifolia, to control Striga hermonthica in maize. The objective is to study the biological efficacy of Polygala rarifolia on Striga hermonthica seeds and the nature of root extracts in order to identify the mode of action.Methodology and results: The methodology used is that of in vitro culture and analysis by high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) of the root extracts of Polygala rarifolia and cowpea. The results obtained in vitro culture confirm the mode of action of trap crop. In the root extracts of Polygala rarifolia and cowpea, the presence of peaks on the chromatograms, substances with retention times very close to those of Strigol and Sorgholactone but with very different UV spectra, was noted. That of cowpea (tr = 27.30 min) and Polygala rarifolia (tr = 27.33 min) are identical and therefore constitute the same chemical substance. It has been possible to say that the root extracts of Polygala rarifolia contain substances similar to those of Strigol. To  establish that they are responsible for the germination of the seeds of Striga hermothica, it would now be necessary to associate a more thorough phytochemical study with an activity study and establish the chemical formula of these substances.Conclusion and application of results: Further studies of the biological activity of Polygala rarifolia may be carried out with the objective of confirming or adding other unidentified results here. All these interesting results can be put into practice in the field through pre-extension to farmers taking into account the often unfavorable climatic conditions.Keywords:  Polygala rarifolia, Striga hermonthica, Maize, Cowpea, Trap crop, HPL

Exploring Drivers of Invasiveness of the Plant Species \u3ci\u3eSenna obtusifolia\u3c/i\u3e in Rangelands to Secure Forage Production in West Africa

Rangelands in Sahelian countries are continuously over-grazed decreasing forage resources and causing rapid environmental changes. Senna obtusifolia is a less palatable plant species that becomes increasingly invasive. This research explored drivers of its invasiveness in the perspective to propose solutions to secure forage production in the pastoral reserves. Species composition and herbaceous aboveground biomass were assessed in rangelands with different levels of invasion of Senna obtusifolia along a climatic and land-use pressure gradient. A greenhouse experiment was conducted to test the competitiveness of this species. The development of Senna obtusifolia in rangelands affected significantly forage quantity. Indeed the biomass of the others herbaceous species decreased but not the species richness. The overgrazing of Sahelian rangelands combined to the floristic selection operated by livestock reduced the abundance of fodder species and fostered the expansion of S. obtusifolia. Moreover, S. obtusifolia had a good germination rate with a rapid growth that made it more competitive. Thus, in the interspecific competition experiment, the aboveground biomass of S. obtusifolia was not influenced when associated to legume, grass and perennial grass species respectively. After 3 years of full protection experiment, the abundance of S. obtusifolia decreased, hence its invasiveness in rangelands should be supported by the mixed effect of disturbance factors as grazing and drought that lead several plant species to be vulnerable and favor undesirable species expansion. The control of S. obtusifolia expansion is conditionned by the reformulation of the land management systems and the promotion of sustainable environmental policies

Evolution particulière de variants cytogénétiques complexes de leucémies myéloïdes chroniques traitées par l’Imatinib

Les variants cytogénétiques simples et complexes constituent 5 à 10% de tous les cas de leucémie myéloïde chronique. Le mécanisme de leur formation a été proposé par certains auteurs. Les aspects clinique, thérapeutique et pronostique ne sont pas différents des formes classiques à l’aire des anti-tyrosines kinases. Nous rapportons deux cas traités par Imatinib dont l’évolution cytogénétique a été particulière. Les deux patients ont été inclus dans le programme GIPAP après signature d’un consentement éclairé. Chaque patient a bénéficié d’un examen clinique, d’un hémogramme, d’un myélogramme, d’un caryotype et ou d’une hybridation intra-génique avec fluorescence avant inclusion dans le programme. Chaque patient après inclusion a été traité avec l’Imatinib à la dose quotidienne de 400mg. La surveillance clinique, hématologique et cytogénétique et moléculaire a été faite selon les recommandations de LeukemiaNet.Key words: Leucémie myéloïde chronique, complexe variant, évolution cytogénétiqu

Place de l’échographie dans la prise en charge de la scapulalgie en rhumatologie à l’hôpital de Dreux: Place of ultrasound in management of shoulder pain in the Rheumatology Department of Dreux Hospital

Contexte & objectif. Les données sur la prise en charge des épaules en rhumatologie sont très limitées. L’objectif de la présente étude était de décrire la place de l’échographie dans la prise en charge des épaules douloureuses en rhumatologie. Méthodes. C’était une étude transversale sur les scapulalgies, suivies en rhumatologie de l’hôpital de Dreux ; entre janvier et mars 2018. Tous les participants avaient réalisé une échographie. Résultats. Au total 40 patients ont été enrôlés. Leur âge moyen était de 61,7 ans, et le sex ratio M/F de 0,29. A l’examen clinique, un conflit sous acromial (67,6%) et un syndrome acromio-claviculaire (32,4 %) étaient souvent observés. Les manœuvres de Jobe (76,5%), Patte (20,6%), et Gerber (14,7%) étaient parfois positives. A l’échographie, on observait les lésions des tendons de la coiffe (82,5%), du long biceps (25%), une bursite sous acromio-deltoïdienne (BSAD : 55%), une arthropathie gléno-humérale (30%), acromio-claviculaire (30%) ou sterno-claviculaire (2,5%). Une infiltration sous échographie était réalisée dans 85% des cas : BSAD (67,5%), gaine du long biceps (7,5%), articulation acromio-claviculaire (7,5%) et sternoclaviculaire (2,5%). Conclusion. L’échographie est très importante dans la prise en charge des scapulalgies dans le département de rhumatologie de l’hôpital de Dreux. Elle permet un diagnostic précis et la réalisation des gestes échoguidées. Context and objective. Knowledge on management of shoulder pain is limited. The objective of the study was to describe the place of ultrasound in the management of shoulder pain in the Rheumatology Department of Dreux Hospital. Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted on patients attending Rheumatology Department for shoulder pain from January to March 2018. All participants performed an ultrasound. Results. The mean age of the 40 patients included in the study was 61.7 years and the sex ratio was 0.29. On clinical examination, subacromial conflict (67.6%) and acromioclavicular syndrome (32.4%) were often observed. The Jobe (76.5%), Patte (20.6%), and Gerber (14.7%) tests were sometimes positive. Ultrasound lesions involved the rotator cuff (82.5%), subacromio-deltoid bursitis (55%), the long biceps tendon (25%), the glenohumeral joint (30%), the acromioclavicular joint (30%), or the sternoclavicular joint (2.5%). Ultrasound-guided infiltration was performed in 85% of cases. It concerned subacromio-deltoid bursitis (67.5%), long biceps sheath (7.5%), acromioclavicular joint (7.5%), and sterno-clavicular joint (2.5%). Conclusion. Ultrasound is very important in the management of shoulder pain in the Rheumatology Department of Dreux Hospital. It allows a precise diagnosis and the realization of echo-guided injections

From pairwise to multiple spliced alignment.

Alternative splicing is a ubiquitous process in eukaryotes that allows distinct transcripts to be produced from the same gene. Yet, the study of transcript evolution within a gene family is still in its infancy. One prerequisite for this study is the availability of methods to compare sets of transcripts while accounting for their splicing structure. In this context, we generalize the concept of pairwise spliced alignments (PSpAs) to multiple spliced alignments (MSpAs). MSpAs have several important purposes in addition to empowering the study of the evolution of transcripts. For instance, it is a key to improving the prediction of gene models, which is important to solve the growing problem of genome annotation. Despite its essentialness, a formal definition of the concept and methods to compute MSpAs are still lacking. We introduce the MSpA problem and the SplicedFamAlignMulti (SFAM) method, to compute the MSpA of a gene family. Like most multiple sequence alignment (MSA) methods that are generally greedy heuristic methods assembling pairwise alignments, SFAM combines all PSpAs of coding DNA sequences and gene sequences of a gene family into an MSpA. It produces a single structure that represents the superstructure and models of the gene family. Using real vertebrate and simulated gene family data, we illustrate the utility of SFAM for computing accurate gene family superstructures, MSAs, inferring splicing orthologous groups and improving gene-model annotations. The supporting data and implementation of SFAM are freely available at https://github.com/UdeS-CoBIUS/SpliceFamAlignMulti. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics Advances online

Key traveller groups of relevance to spatial malaria transmission: a survey of movement patterns in four sub-Saharan African countries

Background: As malaria prevalence declines in many parts of the world due to widescale control efforts and as drug-resistant parasites begin to emerge, a quantitative understanding of human movement is becoming increasingly relevant to malaria control. However, despite its importance, significant knowledge gaps remain regarding human movement, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Methods: A quantitative survey of human movement patterns was conducted in four countries in sub-Saharan Africa: Mali, Burkina Faso, Zambia, and Tanzania, with three to five survey locations chosen in each country. Questions were included on demographic and trip details, malaria risk behaviour, children accompanying travellers, and mobile phone usage to enable phone signal data to be better correlated with movement. A total of 4352 individuals were interviewed and 6411 trips recorded. Results: A cluster analysis of trips highlighted two distinct traveller groups of relevance to malaria transmission: women travelling with children (in all four countries) and youth workers (in Mali). Women travelling with children were more likely to travel to areas of relatively high malaria prevalence in Mali (OR = 4.46, 95 % CI = 3.42–5.83), Burkina Faso (OR = 1.58, 95 % CI = 1.23–1.58), Zambia (OR = 1.50, 95 % CI = 1.20–1.89), and Tanzania (OR = 2.28, 95 % CI = 1.71–3.05) compared to other travellers. They were also more likely to own bed nets in Burkina Faso (OR = 1.77, 95 % CI = 1.25–2.53) and Zambia (OR = 1.74, 95 % CI = 1.34 2.27), and less likely to own a mobile phone in Mali (OR = 0.50, 95 % CI = 0.39–0.65), Burkina Faso (OR = 0.39, 95 % CI = 0.30–0.52), and Zambia (OR = 0.60, 95 % CI = 0.47–0.76). Malian youth workers were more likely to travel to areas of relatively high malaria prevalence (OR = 23, 95 % CI = 17–31) and for longer durations (mean of 70 days cf 21 days, p < 0.001) compared to other travellers. Conclusions: Women travelling with children were a remarkably consistent traveller group across all four countries surveyed. They are expected to contribute greatly towards spatial malaria transmission because the children they travel with tend to have high parasite prevalence. Youth workers were a significant traveller group in Mali and are expected to contribute greatly to spatial malaria transmission because their movements correlate with seasonal rains and hence peak mosquito densities. Interventions aimed at interrupting spatial transmission of parasites should consider these traveller groups